The Hidden Power of The Heart

“If it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.” ― Leo Tolstoy

Make a fist. This is about the size of your heart. You probably don’t think too much about it, you may even forget it’s there. While you are walking, biking, shopping, or watching your favorite mini series, your heart is beating non-stop. It never rests.

The heart beats about 100,000 times a day, more than 30 million times per year, and about 2.5 billion times in a 70-year lifetime. It is hollow and pumps 2000 gallons of blood a day, but there is a secret power we each have that make it one of the most powerful parts of our being.

The heart generates the largest electromagnetic field in the body. These waves move into infinity. Electromagnetic fields are present everywhere in our environment but are invisible to the human eye. This heart field is 60 times greater in amplitude than brain waves. It can be detected and measured several feet away, in a circle above and around us, and blends between two individuals in close proximity. The heart connects everything around us, and can trigger our deepest yearnings, which is why it is often said that we should follow our hearts’ desires.

Doctors used to think the heart was just a muscle. Science has proven that the heart is actually made of 65% neurons, with only 45% muscle, making it one of the most important organs to give us information. It sends more information to our brain than vice versa. This information is integral to our health and mental clarity, but how do we know what our heart is telling us?

Research shows a person’s emotional state is communicated throughout the body via the heart’s electromagnetic field. The beating patterns of the heart shifts as we experience different emotions. Negative emotions, such as anger or frustration, are associated with an erratic, disordered, incoherent pattern in the heart’s rhythms. In contrast, positive emotions, such as love or appreciation, are associated with a smooth, ordered, coherent pattern in the heart’s rhythmic activity. Given what science now knows about the heart, it is important to keep yourself in alignment with what your heart loves, so you can stay happy and healthy.

The Language of Love

Poets have been considered the experts on the language of the heart and love. When poet Mary Oliver says, “Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable,” only the heart knows what that means. The brain may not understand it, but it’s felt throughout the body. Our intrinsic emotions form energy, and the heart is always vibrating toward creating balance and harmony. Thus, love can be understood as the state of perfect vibrational harmonization. Doing what we love, being around loving people, and treating others with love is not just something we think, it is something we can emanate outward into the world. Thus, it’s important to remember how deeply we can connect to each other, and how we affect everyone around us.

In the study, The Energetic Heart:Bioelectromagnetic Interactions Within and Between People, by Rollin McCraty, Ph.D., the data showed that, "When people touch or are in proximity, a transference of the electromagnetic energy produced by the heart occurs." This energy could be positive or negative energy, based on the emotional state of the person transmitting the emotions.

The Heart of Nia

Nia is one of the best fitness programs for the heart because it engages the cardiovascular system that strengthens your heart and lungs so it can supply oxygen-rich blood to your working muscle tissues. In turn, your muscles can efficiently use oxygen to produce the energy you need to do what you want to do. The right kind of movement and intensity helps your heart and lungs get stronger, making it possible for your heart to pump more blood more forcefully with each beat and rest longer in between beats.

Body: Everything you do matters. Nia helps you shift from isolated muscle training into movement-based training that teaches you to establish coherency between your body’s movements, the heart, and infuses them with healthy elements from the martial, dance, and healing arts.

Mind: Everything you think matters. The heart sends far more signals to the brain than the brain sends to the heart, and heart signals have a significant effect on your brain function. Not only does the heart respond to the brain, the brain continuously responds to the heart. Shift out of fear and into love and you alter the messages running through your body and send out into the electromagnetic field of the universe.

Emotions: Everything you feel matters. While training your body to become more flexible, mobile, agile, and stable, train your emotional being through positive thinking. The regulation and exploration of emotions can positively change your brain function and structure. The goal is to foster adaptive patterns to more effectively regulate a harmonious life for you and those around you.

Spirit: Everything about you matters. The largest rhythmic electromagnetic field in the body is the one created by the heart, which means following your heart is critical to your heart’s health and well-being. Follow your heart and you sustain positive emotions and generate increased heart rhythm coherence. This benefits your entire body and affects how you perceive, think, feel, and perform in life on and off the dance floor and gym.